Sunshine and daisies
by Creamecream
Summary: Bethany and Merrill ride a horse and talk about flowers...yup, that's about it. Modern AU featuring horse rider!Bethany and florist!Merrill. Merrill x Bethany with some Fenris x Hawke thrown in there because I have a problem and I'm aware. Hawke's gender and appearance are undefined and they use they/them pronouns. One-shot.


*Stretches story writing muscles in an attempt to not only write every few months, but meh, such is life.*

Why Horse rider!Bethany and florist!Merrill? I don't know, I just thought it fit for some reason.

There isn't enough Merrill x Bethany in this world and it's a pretty great ship, so here's some.

I probably should have checked this over better, but meh, it's early and I have breakfast waiting for me.

I actually brought an completed both Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Origins by now, so hopefully I know each character a bit, I'm also in Dragon Age hell and am happy about it(though I was there before I had the games.)

Disclaimer-None is mine, just the ideas and the fact that I actually wrote it down.

…

Merrill smiled giddily, lightly bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet as Bethany walked over to saddle the horse, the reins of the saddle clicking from where she had it tucked against her side.

"Alright, calm down or I'll have to advise Varric to change your nickname from 'Daisy' to 'Bouncy'." Bethany said airily when she glanced at the elf, a brief laugh slipping past her lips as she patted the chosen horse for the days outing's flank. Loosely gripping the saddle under her other arm as she readied herself to prepare the animal for the day.

"Bouncy isn't bad," Merrill replied, a smile still stretched across her face but her eyes making it clear that she was being completely serious. "do you not like it? I like Daisy but I wouldn't mind too terribly if I were Bouncy instead."

Bethany rolled her eyes, a smile of her own pulling at her lips. "Maker, anything is better than Broody, poor Fenris. Andraste knows how he ended up with my elder sibling with they're anything but broody." Bethany remarked casually.

"I think it's sweet, they get so…" Merrill trailed off, placing a couple of her fingers under her chin in a gesture of thought. "Soft, I think that would be the correct word in this context? They just seem so happy when they are together; Fenris seems so much softer with them than he is without Hawke."

A gentle smile graced Bethany's lips at the thought of how her sibling smiled when around the male elf, the same way she assumed she smiled when around Merrill, affection for each elf just dripping from each Hawke sibling, besides Carver, of course, Bethany remembered to tack on to the end of her thoughts.

Bethany was pulled from her musings when the horse beside her snorted, swiftly reminding her of why she and Merrill were here in the first place. "I know, sorry, got off track." Bethany amended quickly, scratching the animal behind one flicking ear. "Taking way too long, I know, I know,"

Bethany turned to Merrill once she had finished saddling the horse. Offering the smaller woman her hand with an over exaggerated, but not ungraceful, bow. "Shall we be off then?" Bethany asked the dalish elf, waiting patiently for the other mage to take her hand before she lifted herself out of her bow, smiling at the sight of Merrill being barely able to contain her giggling.

"Please," Merrill managed to breath past her fit of giggles only to falter and nearly burst out into laughter when Bethany pulled her into herself as soon as she paced her hand in that of her lover's.

…

Merrill glanced everywhere in wonderment; she had seen all these paths and roads several times before but never from the angle that being curled against Bethany's back, her arms around her waist while both of them swayed atop a rather large horse offered. Everything looked so much smaller from her new vantage point, as it should, the elf mused, she was higher up after all so it made sense, but it was all so new that Merrill couldn't help but stare at everything that they passed.

Merrill was so engrossed by her new view of the world that she barely noticed Bethany lean down in her seat to grab something until she was already shifting back into a semi normal posture, one that allowed her to both see where the horse was walking and glace over her shoulder at Merrill when she had the chance.

"Here," Bethany finally muttered, moving so she could stick the absurdly large and colorful flower she had picked into Merrill's short hair. "Tell me what it is?" the larger mage asked quietly, her eyes lingering on Merrill for a moment before she turned back around.

Merrill smiled and gently pulled the flower from her hair, her fingertips running feather light over its petals.

"Hmm…" Merrill pondered for a moment, twirling the flower between her fingers as she clicked her tongue while assessing the blossom. "Anemone," Merrill confirmed with a nod of her head, forgetting the fact that Bethany could not see her for the moment, lifting her head and repeating herself louder when she recalled. "It's an anemone, very delicate, pretty…"

Merrill barely managed to see the smile on Bethany's face as she spoke about the flower while the other woman was turned away from her but she smiled in return just the same, tucking the flower into Bethany's longer hair on a whim.

"It suits you better anyway, you're very pretty like it is after all," Merrill responded when Bethany caught her eyes with a questioning glance over her shoulder when the flower was settled in her hair. Bethany tossed an even bigger smile at her girlfriend and nodded before turning her eyes away again to focus on the path ahead of them.

…

Bethany only pulled the flower from her hair later when both she and Merrill were cuddled up together on the couch in her families' living room, a blanket snuggly curled around the both of them. Softly settling the bloom in her hands to admire it, tilting so Merrill could see it with her chin still tucked up against Bethany's back, the smaller mage's arms loosely slung around her waist.

"I think it fits you more, personally," Bethany commented, fingering the blossom's colorful petals. "It's sweet and soft, like you."

"It's also pretty and makes others smile, like you," Merrill's reply was muffled by her mouth being pressed to Bethany's body, but the human could still hear her and nodded in understanding.

"Well it can't be both of us, we'll have to pick," Bethany huffed, twirling the flower absently as she thought aloud, only stopping when her elder sibling walked in, their hand firmly joined with Fenris' as the nearly dragged the other elf out the door, slowing only to give Bethany a quick peck on the forehead and to make a comment about when they'd be back, seemingly to not notice as Fenris' gazed at them with loving adoration clear in his green eyes the whole time he was pulled about.

Bethany shook her head when the front door shut, leaning back against Merrill before she opened her mouth to speak.

"We've been going about this all wrong," Bethany mumbled with a chuckle, stopping briefly to wait for Merrill's nod to continue her train of thought, most likely in complete agreement already if she had realized where her lover was headed with this. "This flower isn't more like either of us," she held the blossom up for scrutiny; "this flower is Fenris when he's nearly bursting with love for my sibling. Did you see him, the way he looked at them? He's completely hopelessly in love, they both are." Bethany murmured with a sigh, flopping farther back into Merrill's embrace.

"At least I have you to be hopelessly in love with also," Merrill chirped happily from behind Bethany, holding out a small hand to take the flower and place it carefully back into her girlfriend's raven hair. "Though I am a bit disappointed that neither of us gets to be the flower, I think I'd rather like being an anemone, at least for a little while, maybe to explore what it is like to be a flower…but would I get to remember what it was like when I am an elf again? I would like that option, and then I could finally know what flowers smell like to other flowers…"

…

I like stories that seem as if they cut into different larger stories way too much, I know this, not going to stop writing them like this, sorry.


End file.
